The MacBook Neo is a great laptop for users who rarely use an external display. If you’re connecting your MacBook Neo to a monitor, there are a few things you need to know.
First, as I mentioned today, the MacBook Neo has two USB-C ports, but they’re not equivalent.
Both ports look the same. However, the USB-C ports on the back have USB 3 and DisplayPort, and the second USB-C has USB 2 (no external display support).
Each can be used for charging and data communication. The back port supports transfer speeds up to 10Gb/s, and the second port is limited to up to 480Mb/s.
If you want to transfer data and charge, you must use the second port to charge instead of the back port. The charging port is traditionally the last port on Apple laptops.
As for what happens when you try to connect a display via the USB 2 port, Apple tells Daring Fireball’s John Gruber that macOS will warn you if you’re using the wrong USB-C port.
From what I’ve heard from Apple product marketers, getting a second USB port was a significant engineering achievement. At all The MacBook Neo is based on the A18 Pro SoC. The ports are not labeled, but if you connect an external display to the “wrong” port, a notification will appear on the screen suggesting you connect it to the other port.
Another thing to know is that, according to Apple, the MacBook Neo’s external display support is limited to “one external display up to a native resolution of 4K (60Hz).”
A footnote on Apple’s website states: “Enabling a scaling resolution higher than the external display’s native resolution may affect the availability of some refresh rates or HDR modes in Display Settings.”
This means that unlike the MacBook Air, the MacBook Neo cannot take full advantage of 5K monitors like the Apple Studio Display. Apple’s cheapest 5K display costs $1000 more than the MacBook Neo, but BenQ is launching a new glossy 5K 27-inch for $999.
Either way, be prepared for a reviewer meme that triggers a wrong port warning for macOS.
MacBook Neo is available for pre-order starting today. It will arrive in stores one week later on March 11th.
(Tag translation) MacBook Neo
